By Carson Camp, as it appeared in The Running Water Historical News -
Marion County, TN - June, 1995

In 1899 a mine was begun on the Cumberland Plateau above the City of
Dunlap (Sequachee 13 July 1899:1) This opening led to the start of the
Sequatchie County coal and coke industry which transformed this small
agricultural region into a thriving industrial center for almost 28
years.

The
Douglas Coal and Coke Company of Delaware began the Dunlap operation
with $400,000 of capital stock put up by investors from New York and
Delaware; the company purchased 14,000 acres of coal lands in its
initial venture and officially announced its intentions on September 30,
1900. (Sequachee 4 October 1900:1) Almost immediately a rail spur was
laid from Nashville, Chattanooga and the St. Louis Railway to the base
of what is now called Fredonia Mountain in the west section of the city.
A gravity incline railway was constructed to allow the coal mined on the
Cumberland Plateau to be lowered to the mail rail tipple located on the
valley floor.

<

The
incline was over 3900 feet in length and operated on a gravity principle
which allowed the weight of the descending incline car or "monitor"
to pull the empty car back up the steep mountain grade. The cars
speed was kept in check by an operator at the top who controlled the
main pulley or "drum" with a friction brake attached to the
drum. The incline rope, made of a single length of 1 ¼ inch cable,
made several turns around this cast iron pulley ("Dunlap 7").
The system worked very well and inclines of this design operated in the
Sequatchie Valley for many years, attesting to the skill of the
engineers who designed the system.

The Dunlap incline cost approximately $13000 (Sequachee 26 December 1901:2)
to build and today visitors still marvel at the vast effort that was
expended to blast out the route through the sandstone cliffs above the
city. Historic photos taken during construction have illustrated that
the construction was done totally by the manual labor provided by local
residents who worked with picks, shovels and black powder explosive. At
the top of the incline a massive sandstone rock overhangs the old rail
bed. It is evident that attempts were made to blast the huge rock away
with the black powder explosives available during the turn of the
century. It was all in vain. The hanging rock still shadows hikers who
follow the steep grade of the incline more than ninety years after the
drill holes were hammered by local workers.